Bagan Lalang 21km Race Report

I signed up this race last minute as there were like more than 30 races on that weekend so I thought I might stand a chance to win something. I also wanted to test how much I've improved since the Nike HM 7 weeks ago. I did 1:48 in Nike so I set my target to 1:35 for Bagan Lalang. 7 weeks of training it better be good!

We got 4th and 5th!

Not many people I know joining this, actually there was like none, only Alan Tan and Sharon. Alan form was superb recently. He just did like about 4min pace in a 15km race the week before so I wanted to see if I could pace with him.

Race flag off at about 6:30am, I followed the lead pack quite closely. Alan was in the lead pack. I stayed like 10m behind them. After like about 5mins, shit happened! We ran wrongly, not sure how we did, we ran back to the starting line again. LOL! We had to cross the starting line again and the 10k runners were already there waiting to flag off. We had to cut through them, so funny! Some of us cursed like hell! But luckily this happened at the beginning and all other runners actually ran wrongly together so the damage was not much, no changes in our positions! I readjusted my pace and mind, assume that it was just a reset and started again! LOL!

My position was 8th after crossing the starting line. Well within top 10! Hope to maintain 4:25/km pace but after about 4km, I felt like I couldn't hold this pace until finish so I'd to readjust the pace down to 4:30/km! 5 seconds difference was actually quite huge difference. I felt much comfortable with 4:30/km! This pace allowed me to actually follow Alan quite closely from the beginning until 7km then we paced together side by side until 11km. We overtook a few runners slowly, our position improved from 7th and 8th to 4th and 5th. At about 11km, I started to speed off. Then I punctured at about 19km. Not quite sure it was my mind or physically but I was already quite happy with what I wanted to achieve.

Crossed the line and got no.4th! Clocked 1:39:09 for 21.95km, about 4:31/km. Minus the 30 seconds wasted when we ran wrong route, so I actually achieved my sub-1:35 HM target! Well within plan! Congrats to Alan too, he got no.5! Sharon got Women champion! So awesome! :D

10m left!

Crossing the finish line!

Woohoo... with Y.B. Puan Lai Nyuk Lan

Top 5 Men Open 21km Finisher!

Sharon the women Champion!